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mh SAMUEL COHEN, ONE-TIME OWNER 11/16/1985
THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1985, The Miami Herald
DATE: Saturday, November 16, 1985 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: 3B LENGTH: 52 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Samuel COHEN
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: BELINDA BROCKMAN Herald Staff Writer
MEMO: DEATHS
SAMUEL COHEN, ONE-TIME OWNER
OF SOME OF BEACH'S FINEST HOTELS
Samuel Cohen, the one-time owner of some of Miami Beach's grandest hotels
who federal investigators alleged to be an associate of organized crime
figures, has died at age 79.
He died Nov. 6 in Cedars Medical Center.
In 1971, Mr. Cohen, along with the late crime wizard Meyer Lansky, was
indicted for conspiracy to skim millions of dollars in untaxed revenues from a
Las Vegas casino, in which he was part-owner from 1961 to 1967.
Two years later, he pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy in the
plot to funnel off $36 million in profits from the Flamingo Hotel and Casino,
in an effort to avoid paying taxes.
In the case, the government contended the money was secretly removed from
the casino and carried by courier to Miami, deposited in Miami National Bank,
where Mr. Cohen was the principal stockholder, and then transfered to Swiss
bank accounts.
Mr. Cohen later sold his interest in the bank.
At his sentencing, Mr. Cohen received one year but later a Las Vegas
judge commuted it to time served -- four months -- and Cohen was released.
Lansky, who was the middleman in Mr. Cohen's purchase of the Flamingo,
never stood trial because of ill health.
Even after serving time, the organized crime connection allegations would
continue to haunt him.
"He made one little mistake, " his son, Alan, said in a 1978 interview, ✓
"and they keep bringing it up."
But that wasn't the first time the millionaire hotelman, whose assets
were estimated to be $28 million in 1969, had run into trouble with the law.
In February 1971, Mr. Cohen was fined $140,000 in a New York federal
court for illegal dealings in potato futures. The charges stated that he
violated the Commodity Exchange Act by engaging in daily trading over the
legal limit. He was fined one-half of 1 percent of his worth.
The son of an immensely wealthy New York builder, Mr. Cohen at one time
owned outright or partial interest in some of the Beach's finest and largest
hotels. They included the Eden Roc, Crown, Versailles, Casablanca, Deauville,
Sherry Frontenac and Sans Souci.
After his guilty plea on the skimming charges, Mr. Cohen sold most of his
hotels.
But his interests expanded beyond Beach hotels. In addition to the Las
Vegas casino, he at one time or another had major
financial interests in several New York apartment buildings, two Miami
high-rise projects and the International Hotel at Freeport, Bahamas.
KEYWORDS: OBITUARY